Jessie Mae Hemphill (1923-2006)
This Is Raw, Unspoiled, Good-natured Down Home Music
Jessie Mae Hemphill (October 18, 1923 – July 22, 2006), was a pioneering
electric guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist specializing in the primal,
northern Mississippi country blues traditions of her family and regional
heritage. She was born near Como and Senatobia, Mississippi, in northern
Mississippi just east of the Mississippi Delta. She began playing the guitar
at the age of seven and also played drums in various local Mississippi fife
and drum bands. The first field recordings of her work were made by blues
researcher George Mitchell in 1967 and ethnomusicologist Dr. David Evans in
1973 when she was known as Jessie Mae Brooks, using the surname from a brief
early marriage, but the recordings were not released. Hemphill then launched
a recording career in the early 1980s. She performed concerts across the
United States and other countries including France, Germany, Spain, Italy,
Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada. She received the
W. C. Handy Award for best traditional female blues artist in 1987 and 1988.
In 1990 her first American full length album, Feelin' Good, was
released, which also won a Handy Award for best acoustic album. Jessie Mae
Hemphill suffered a stroke that paralyzed her left side in 1993, preventing
her from playing guitar, resulting in her retiring at that time from her
blues career. She was unique in country blues as a female defying tradition
by singing her own original material while accompanying herself on electric
guitar and playing tambourine with her foot. She employs a folk-blues open
tuning style with a hypnotic drone in her guitar playing instead of relying
on standard, 12-bar blues styles. In 2004 Wilhelmine and Tyler Austin of the
fledgling Jessie Mae Hemphill Foundation released Dare You to Do It Again,
a double album of gospel standards, newly recorded by the ailing vocalist
singing and playing tambourine with accompaniment from Steve Gardner, DJ Logic,
and descendants of the late musicians
Junior Kimbrough,
R. L. Burnside, and
Otha Turner.
The release, her first recordings since the 1993 stroke, also included a DVD.
Also in 2004, Inside Sounds released Get Right Blues, containing
material recorded from 1979 through the early 1980s; Black & Blue released
Mississippi Blues Festival, which included seven live tracks by her from a
Paris concert in 1986. On July 22, 2006, Jessie Mae Hemphill died at The
Regional Medical Center in Memphis, after experiencing complications from an ulcer.
(quoted from wikipedia.org)
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Visit also these related Sites:
Jessie Mae Hemphill Tribute Pages
Visit Jessie Mae Hemphill's tribute page at myspace.com.
Biographical Information on Jessie Mae Hemphill
Jessie Mae Hemphill biography at wikipedia.org.
Jessie Mae Hemphill biography at jmhemphill.org.
Jessie Mae Hemphill biography by Jon Lusk.
Various Articles on Jessie Mae Hemphill
Article by Jack Sutton.
Article by Tony Russell.
Article at elisblues.blogspot.com.
Article at findarticles.com.
Article by David Evans.
Reviews and Critiques of Jessie Mae Hemphill Live Performances and Recordings
Cd review by Barbara Flaska.
Cd review at diddywah.blogspot.com.
Jessie Mae Hemphill Discographies
Jessie Mae Hemphill discography at koti.mbnet.fi.
Jessie Mae Hemphill Photos
One Jessie Mae Hemphill photo by Steve Gardner.
One Jessie Mae Hemphill photo by Lisa McGaughran.
Jessie Mae Hemphill Videos
Jessie Mae Hemphill - You Can Talk About Me. Runtime 04:56.
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